Angel's Escape

Harlee POV

Lil paced from the room again.

'Don't tell Ash yet. About the baby.' I pleaded with Sands, a tear sliding down my cheek as I spoke with him through our Bond.

'I'm so sorry Harlee.' Came Sands' soft reply. I could feel him trying to send his comfort through to me. 'I've staunched the bleeding as best as I can from here, but I'll need to get closer to help with the rest. You know this is going to make everyone want you on bed-rest, right?' I knew Sands was attempting to cheer me up, but I was heartbroken.

"Mama!" Cael called again.

"I hear you baby!" I yelled back.

"Mama." This time it was more a sigh of relief. "Out?" Cael called.

"We're trying baby. Don't worry." I answered.

"No. Me." Cael yelled.

"No me what?" I looked at Zeev who shrugged. "Does he mean he got out already?"

"Shut up brat!" I heard Lil squawk from somewhere down the hall.

"You shut up!" I screamed at her. Zeev shook his head.

"Yeah!" Cael yelled and I grinned. Zeev gestured with his head.

"You did that. That's all you he's taking after." Zeev remarked.

"Pfft. Like you don't have attitude." I responded.

"Yeah, but I know which battles to pick." Zeev said smugly. Lil reentered the room with some archaic looking medical tools.

"What the fuck?" I practically squealed.

"Oh these? Well since I can't dislodge that last Cambion with simple Demonic powers, well maybe I can use a combination of mundane and Demonic. See if I find the magic combo. So to speak." Lil grinned fiercely. As she advanced on me with her wicked smile, that was it, I'd had enough.

"Sands! Now!" I yelled, both inside and outside my head.

Zeev POV

Two things happened in very quick succession. The first, I was expecting. Lil was not. However, the second, none of us were expecting.

Immediately after Harlee's yell, Lil looked at her with a cocked eyebrow, but Harlee's head was tossed back in a silent scream, her body seized once, all the muscles going rigid. A blinding white light surrounded her, accompanied by a sound so high-pitched and deafening I felt my eardrums burst. Harlee's chin slammed to her chest as the light fully absorbed into her body. I roared, yanking at my bonds. All sounds were distorted as my eardrums tried to heal, but I didn't care. This was so dangerous. Harlee's head slowly lifted and she opened her eyes. There was a brilliant flash and her eye color settled into Sands' light blue. Her bonds popped open abruptly and she slipped them, falling from the table easily. Harlee's body landed in a crouch, while Lil gaped.

At the same time, another even brighter flash of light occurred outside the room, accompanied by the sound of an explosion. Lil's head swiveled and she ducked, swearing loudly. Her gaze bounced back and forth between Harlee and the hall, as if trying to decide which was the greater threat to her survival. As if making up her mind that she'd rather not get trapped in the room with us, she raced out into the hall. To my surprise, she raced towards the explosion. Perhaps she had more courage than I gave her credit for. Harlee stared after Lil for a moment before walking to my side.

"Sands, brother. Please hurry, and be careful. You risk burning her up the longer you possess her." I murmured softly. Sands met my gaze through Harlee's face and nodded once. I could tell the idea was weighing heavily on him as well as he broke the bonds that held me.

Harlee POV

Never, never again would I agree to this. When Zeev had possessed me, it had been uncomfortable, an oily feeling, like being a passenger in my own body. Despite it all, I was still there, and perhaps because Zeev and I shared a soul, his power didn't feel foreign to me. It was like dark, slimy smoke crawling through my system, yes, but not like this.

The moment Sands had brushed my mind with the idea, I had been intrigued. 'Hosting' an Angel as he called it-but Zeev's mind screamed at me to refuse. It was possession, no matter how you sliced it, he tried to warn me. Worse, Angels didn't take 'host' bodies often, because they burned through them too fast. Humans weren't meant to contain that kind of power, to be that close to the Divine! But I was near creatures of the Divine and Demonic every day. Hell, I'd given birth to one and was carrying another, one I desperately wanted to protect. Besides, Sands was the only one that could possibly get us out of here, standing between the two worlds the way he did. So I shut Zeev out and told Sands those words he needed to take control of my body.

"I consent."

I regretted it now. I regretted it the first moment his consciousness started to pour into my body. My head fell back in a silent scream as every muscle fiber in my body clenched. My nerves all sent one message back to my brain: pain. The light that was Sands' essence seared me from the inside. It was like getting sunburnt on the inside. And then, Sands did the unthinkable. He locked away my consciousness with a murmured apology. My pain was too distracting. He couldn't concentrate. I railed against the tiny corner of my mind I'd been relegated to. I could see, hear, feel.. nothing. I was trapped.

"Sands!" I screamed over and over, beating the walls of my prison, before eventually curling up in a ball with a sob.

Zeev POV

"How angry is she?" I asked as I dropped to the floor.

"Furious." I was not prepared for Sands' voice from Harlee's mouth and twitched. "What, you'd rather I used hers/"

"How the Hell...?" I stuttered.

"Apparently, sharing Harlee's mind and body brings me so close to her soul fragment, and I can access the link she shares to you and Ash. It's.. quite distracting to have four people's thoughts in my head. Combined with the pain from my power burning through her, I had to lock Harlee away in her own mind so I could concentrate." Sands stated.

"You WHAT?!" I yelled. Harlee's body twitched slightly as Sands looked at me out of the corner of his eyes. His eyes in her face. I closed my own eyes, squeezing the bridge of my nose for a moment.

"She's gonna kill us all." I muttered.

Harlee POV

Slowly, so slowly I almost wasn't aware of it at first, Sands started widening my cage. And then there was a slam against my prison walls and they all shattered. Sands squinted in my head and withdrew, and in front of me stood a handsome young man with gorgeous gold wings. Just two wings, I noted, but they shone like they were lit from within. His features were a delicate blend of my own and Zeev's. My blue eyes, skin a tone or two lighter than Zeev's, making it a a beautiful dark caramel shade, lightly muscled, hair a beautiful tumble of curls. A silver chain was around one wrist and a gold band around his ankle. He had a hand extended towards me and I fell to my knees in the hall.

"Cael." I sobbed. I knew immediately it was my baby, and that he'd taken on a Form closer to his Angelic Form. "Oh baby. I'm so sorry." He paced to me and I noticed his feet were bare. He reached down and pulled me into his arms, cradling me against his chest gently, but tightly, like I was the infant suddenly.

"Momma." I heard his deep melodious voice murmur, before he turned to Zeev with a quick jerk of his head. "Let's go." Zeev nodded. As Cael turned again and folded his wings, I saw the hall behind him. It was utterly destroyed, like a bomb had gone off. Several walls were blown into and out of the hall, and amidst all the rubble...

"Lil.." I breathed.

"She deserved it." Cael sneered. Lil was currently pegged to a wall with some of the equipment she'd intended to use on me. Her abdomen was ripped open, and there was a bloody mess below her feet on the floor. I hesitated to guess what the mess of tissue there was, but I had a feeling I knew, and wondered if Lil was still capable of being called the 'Mother of Demons'. I shuddered and Cael held me tighter.